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A Blog for those who have fun with science fiction, popular culture etc. I'll be following, movies and TV. Especially fond of 12 Monkeys, The X-Files, Orphan Black, Fringe, Dr. Who, James Bond, and the like.

Helix - Sexual Healing and Twins

Helix cranked up the sexual overtones in the their last episode entitled, "Aniqatiga." And to what end I wonder.

The episode started rich with mythology and teeming with answers most notably the fate of Sergio Balleseros and the continued hallucinations of Julia.

But I couldn't help be distracted with the overt placement of sexual or romantic situations.

Let's start with Alan Farragut and his mixed messages towards Sarah Jordan. This is a quick lesson on not how to impress a lady. Alan tells Sarah he needs Julia (she wrote the book on gene splicing) and then he tells Sarah they "only have each other" and how he "can't afford to lose her either."

Did you see the look on her face?

She switches between being crushed and elated with the wink of an eye. Wow, Alan, this is the lady that isn't exactly in a good place what with her morphine indulgence. And now you're teasing her about being the last two standing? Are you trying to push her over the edge?

If the sexual innuendo of between Alan and Sarah weren't bad enough we switch to Sergio and his new found "friend" Anana.

Not only did this encounter have sexual overtones it was spiced with some S&M! Really? A shirtless Sergio handcuffed to the bed? It gets better(?) when a furious Anana confronts Sergio with his escape attempt and actually mounts him in order to make her point.

"What am I a hostage?" he asks. Her response, "We can make this as dirty as you want it to be."

Well now, we get it Anana!

It even gets steamier by the end of the episode when Alan and Sarah decide to let go of their inhibitions and find a release.

So why all the overt sexuality? The cynical side of me would say sex sells and the way to keep people watching and draw in new viewers is to come up with some sexual situations in order to up the titillation factor. I did giggle at a few of the scenes but when you invest yourself with a show like this and it's sci-fi appeal doesn't this cheapen things a bit?

I suppose everyone knows what a "shipper" is. Someone that is invested in the relationships of a show. It seems every show has to have it's shipper quotient these day but do we really need it on Helix? Or is it at least, too soon?

Aniqatiga

If there is one thing all the shipper/sexual nonsense did bring us it was the revelation of the missing children and Daniel's twin, Toluk. Or should we refer to Daniel as, "Miksa."

Anana has a brother and that brother has a twin! Aniqatiga means "my sibling" in the Inupiaq language. (Inuit of Alaska.) This opens up a whole new kettle of fish. Not only does this mean the missing children may have been part of Arctic BioSystems experimentation, but it also means Daniel is one of the missing and through his unique stature as a twin it affords ABS with someone to experiment on and then sample the other twin as a control subject.

Julia

My mind immediately leapt to the Julia storyline and that of the mysterious little girl.

As the episode progressed I began to work out a theory that Julia's latest vision was really an avatar of her childhood self. This wasn't a big leap and it was later confirmed by "dream Peter." But can we tie this in with the missing children of the Inuit tribe? Was Julia a missing child at one point? I'm still torn over Julia really been held as a child and experimented on and/or her being held as an adult and through experimentation she reverted psychologically to a childhood state.

Does Julia have a twin?

In a manner of speaking maybe she does and that twin may be Hatake.

This may explain his fascination with her and it may explain her lack of NARVIK - B viral symptoms by the end of the episode. It seems Hatake has provided Julia with a cure of sorts the only lingering affect is the eyes she's now inherited that are much like Hatake's.

They may be just twins in a metaphorical sense but I sense this goes deeper. As Alan said earlier, Julia is the master of gene splicing. Did her genetic make up get spliced with that of Hatake's? Did it happen during their respective childhoods? Were they both experimented on as children and are they "twins" because of the genetic makeup they share and their shared experience?

To add fuel to this fire, remember when Julia noticed how fast Hatake's wound has been healing? He looked at her with a wry smile and said, "I must have good genes."

Good "shared" genes and that's why the cure worked so well with Julia.

Embrace your twin Julia.

This may not go back to their childhoods. Although, I hope it does. Julia and Hatake may have been experimented on as adults and have the same shared trauma that reverted them to a childlike state. But it would be a lot creepier if they actually grew up together in the lab. Don't you remember that vacation Julia?

The inclusion of the family dinner scene may help solidify this theory of mine. Metaphorically speaking , they did all sit there as a family and everyone is related to one or the other in some respect. Either as a sibling (uh-oh Alan, watch your back) or by marriage or by "affair". Hmm, all except Sergio. What's your relation Sergio? Do you have a sibling somewhere? (I bet he find out he does.)

This story may have had a misplaced sexual context but it opened the genie's bottle to a whole new wing of mythology.

Twin, siblings and children, oh my! Good luck getting out of this land of Oz Julia!

Comments

I had very similar thoughts about the fling between Alan and Sarah. I'm hoping there will be a point to it, otherwise it was really a cheap shot. Frankly, the only characters I would have shipped for were Sergio and Doreen, because they were so different and had some neat chemistry together.

Sergio and Anana were like pubescent teens, good grief! lol... It must be said, however, that when we see Anana come and tuck in Sergio (like, really??) and he starts choking her, I was ready to choke both her and the writers myself. How gratifying was it when - almost effortlessly, to boot - she just does her best Wonder Woman demonstration and puts that uppity bull in his place. Anana and Doreen might have gotten along nicely.

I think one of the things I like best about this show (apart from the so-far meaningless romance), is that overall the viewer is not treated like an idiot. It is very much like Fringe for that. I hope hope hope this show gets the chance to continue!

I'll have to watch this episode a second time, as there was a lot to take in....

I'm very much a "sucker", as my preferred method for watching is just to go along for the ride (most of the time). It's understandable that they try to please at least a certain number of potential viewers, of course, otherwise there wouldn't be a redshirt's chance at a zombie festival for survival. At least there are writers who taking chances here and there.

I'm looking forward to finding some Sherlock DVDs this summer to see what that buzz is all about!

I'm sorry, I didn't hear anything you said after "you're looking forward to getting some Sherlock DVD's." You haven't seen Sherlock???!!!!!! Pass the smelling salts I'm going to faint!

I'm teasing. Seriously, you have to see them. All the stories are derivative of the classic tales but with a modern twist. Not all of them work in my opinion but the characters are amazing. I just love Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Watson. They are the real draw to this series.

I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan in any iteration. Do you get "Elementary" from CBS? Love that too. Hmmm, I'm starting to sound like that "sucker" I referred to earlier. Oh well.

You don't mind if I use your, "Redshirts chance at a zombie festival" line do you? Love that too.

I was trying to think of when I became such a TV nerd/sucker the other day and I'm pretty sure I can blame it on the X-Files/Buffy/Xena days.

You called it Dave, this was an awkward eye-roller of an episode. Not only was all the sex and inuendo shoe-horned in, none of it felt genuine. I agree with Ingrid, the only genuine chemistry, not even necessarily sexual, that I've seen on the show was between Doreen and Sergio. The Alan and Sara scene just felt all kinds of wrong to me and I doubt that is what the show was going for. Hopefully this stuff is out of the way and we can proceed with getting to the heart of the mysteries.

So Julia is "cured" but has the creepy eyes and no colored contacts to hide them, what now for her? Find her way back to the top for rescue or descend deeper for answers? Will her "fix" result in any clarity memory-wise? Too bad Doreen wasn't at the dinner table, Julia doesn't know she's dead right?

Oh, and I guess the base isn't so isolated. Didn't Anana ever do a lap around it and trip over the frozen monkeys?! Or frozen heads?!

Here's hoping Julia descends deeper into the abyss. It would make no sense in reality but totally normal in TV terms.

Nice point concerning Julia's memory. You'd think the "fix" would help but once again knowing how TV works she may only get partial snippets of her memory back. They need to drag that stuff out. More suspense that way. Hey, maybe they will surprise me and Julia will track Hatake down with a trusty ice pick in her hand.

Anana didn't even run into the Arctic Cat that has been patrolling the perimeter or vice versa. C'mon!